FleetBoston profits up 10 percent
BOSTON — FleetBoston Financial Corp., the eighth largest U.S. bank holding company, posted a 10-percent rise in operating earnings. Fleet, which has operations ranging from commercial banking to a discount brokerage, reported operating earnings of $782 million, or 84 cents a diluted share. That compares with profits of $711 million, or 74 cents a share, a year ago. Including the gains related to the sale of certain deposits and loans and merger-related expenses, the company posted net income of $841 million, or 90 cents a share.
Verizon wins Mass. backing for phone bid
Boston (Bloomberg) — Verizon Communications won Massachusetts endorsement for its bid to sell long-distance phone service in the state even as the attorney general warned that the No. 1 local-phone company may be discriminating against rivals. The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy sent a 413-page report to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission backing Verizon’s plan to offer service in the state’s $2 billion long-distance market, the agency said in a statement. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC may authorize local phone providers to sell long-distance service in a state, lifting prohibitions in place since 1984, after consulting with state regulators and the U.S. Justice Department. A local company must prove that expansion won’t hinder competition.
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Boston Properties profit up 23 percent
BOSTON (Bloomberg) — Boston Properties Inc., the second-largest office real estate investment trust, said third- quarter earnings rose 23 percent as technology-related, financial services and other companies boosted demand for space in New York, San Francisco and Boston. Separately, the Boston-based company reached an agreement to lease about half of a 47-story tower it plans to build in New York’s Times Square to accounting and consulting firm Arthur Andersen LLP, company officials said. Boston Properties’ funds from operations increased to $61.5 million, or 85 cents a share, from $50.2 million, or 72 cents, in the year-earlier period. Revenue at the Boston-based developer, headed by the real estate and publishing executive Mortimer Zuckerman, rose to $223.3 million from $202.1 million. The national office vacancy rate is at its lowest point since 1981, and rents in some markets, such as New York and San Francisco, are up 25 percent over the past year, topping $100 a square foot mark for the first time in both cities. Some of the properties the company has bought in recent years include San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center, an office and retail complex called the Rockefeller Center of the West, and Boston’s Prudential Center. It also controls two sites it is developing for about $1.2 billion in New York’s Times Square.
Quaker Fabric reports strong third quarter results
FALL RIVER, Mass. (PRNewswire) – Quaker Fabric Corp. reported net sales of $68.6 million, net income of $1.9 million, and diluted earnings per share of $0.12 for the three-month period ended September 30. That compares to net sales of $61.3 million, net income of $808,000, and diluted earnings per share five cents for the same period a year ago. Results of operations for the first nine months of fiscal year 2000 were net sales of $224 million, net income of $8 million, and diluted earnings per share of $0.50. That compares to net sales of $181.9 million, net income of $1.2 million, and diluted earnings per share of eight cents for the same period a year ago.
Boston Communications sells division
WOBURN – Boston Communications Group, a manager of pre-paid calling plans and customer service for wireless phone companies announced that it had sold its customer care division to TeleTech Holdings, Inc. of Denver, Colo., for $13 million in cash and assumption of $2 million in debt. The two companies also announced a “strategic alliance” to sell wireless services worldwide. TeleTech offers e-commerce customer services in telecommunications, banking, technology, transportation and other fields.
American Tower unit acquires Internet supplier
BOSTON – American Tower Corporation’s Verestar unit announced it had acquired Publicom Corp., a provider of Internet services in Latin America and the Caribbean and had agreed to buy another closely held company, InterPacket Networks, Inc. of Santa Monica, Calif. Verestar is American Tower’s telesports unit. Terms of the acquisition of Publicom and agreement with InterPacket were not disclosed.
Northeastern building health science complex
BOSTON – Northeastern University has begun construction of a $37 million health science complex. The building that will house classrooms and other facilities for its Bouve College of Health Sciences is scheduled for completion in 2002, the Boston Globe reported. In addition to classrooms, the complex will include clinical laboratories, a 150-seat lecture hall and an admissions center.
(Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
